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Triano-Turkoglu relationship needs work

From the scrap heap of a season of bitter disappointment, with the time for introspection having arrived, two men central to the failings of the Raptors vow to change.

There will be more discipline and accountability demanded, more discipline and accountability accepted as Jay Triano and Hedo Turkoglu trying to re-examine a relationship that’s got to improve if the team is going to get any better.

The knock on Triano, finishing his first full season as an NBA head coach, was that he was too “nice” for the job, unable or unwilling to seriously challenge his players.

There is some merit to that argument but it’s also true that no two players are alike and Triano fully admits he’s got work to do in that area.

“I am a firm believer that you treat people as professionals until they show you otherwise,” Triano said as the Raptors cleaned out lockers and prepared for the summer. “Does that mean sometimes do I give guys a second chance? Absolutely. But I think in the end those are the guys that will come back and help you because you stuck with them in the past. Do I need to be harder on some guys? Yes.

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“Do I have to demand more discipline from those guys who maybe aren’t going to be professionals and act in a professional manner every single game? Absolutely.

“I have to make adjustments just like players have to get better in the off-season. I have to make adjustments as well.”

One of the adjustments, and proof that he’s getting tougher, will be in Triano’s dealings with Turkoglu, who was equal parts enigma and albatross after signing a five-year, $53 million contract last July.

He came with a reputation as a big-game player and then came up small, an offensive facilitator who couldn’t fit into the offence.

“I know I disappointed a lot of people, especially the fans after they watched me many years … and they expect a lot of things from me and I couldn’t do that. I know I upset a lot of people but it wasn’t really on purpose … I didn’t come here not to perform or not to play.”

But the Turkoglu issue went far deeper than just his play on the court. He was given the entire training camp off to recover from a long summer of playing and didn’t get up to speed for weeks. That special treatment rankled some teammates and played no small part in Toronto’s 7-13 start to the season.

It won’t happen again.

“Did we think it would unfold the way it did? Absolutely not,” said Triano. “And in hindsight, yeah we wouldn’t do that again. Will it happen next year after the world championships? No and we discussed that with him already … I’m not going to defend him. He did not have a great year.”

There’s even more. Turkoglu was benched for a crucial game in Miami in April after being spotted at a Toronto nightclub hours after missing a home game with the flu. There was an incident early in the season with a cellphone camera and another nightclub and the off-court issues are part and parcel of what Turkoglu was in what was a long learning session.

“I have to just keep myself calm all the time. That’s a really big thing for me,” he said when asked what he’d learned this year. “Like I said, people expect a lot of things from me and it’s normal that they want more from me. Sometimes things were getting out of control and in those situations … I had bad comments or bad attitude. I have to look at those two and how I act and be a better person if I get those situations again.”

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